One Sweet Love
by Hopeful Romantic
Summary: Perfect, candlelit sex only happens in the movies and romance fiction...


**Disclaimer:** There are many things I own, but Bones is not one of them. All characters belong to Kathy Reichs, Hart Hanson and FOX. No copyright infringement is intended and no money was made from this. Any similarity to any story not my own is coincidence.

**Title:** One Sweet Love  
**Genre:** AU/General/Romance; Temperance Brennan/Seeley Booth  
**Rating:** PG-13; rated for general adult concepts  
**Timeline:** Sometime at the end of season 4 or into season 5  
**Summary:** Perfect, candlelit sex only happens in the movies and romance fiction...  
**Author's Notes:** See above *grin* Seriously, I got to thinking about what it would be like if things didn't start out quite the way a hopeful romantic may like...

* * *

_One Sweet Love_

Temperance came out of the bedroom slowly, the blue silk sheet from her bed wrapped loosely around her like a make-shift dressing gown. She found her partner already half-dressed, sitting on her couch and carefully cradling something in his hands.

"Booth?"

He gave no response and Temperance stepped closer.

"Booth?"

Still, Seeley gave no acknowledgment that he had heard his partner. She closed the remaining distance and sat down quietly in the brown leather chair next to the couch.

"Booth, it happens. It happens to three out of four men at least seven times in his life. It's nothing..."

Booth held up his free hand to interrupt her.

"It's not that, Bones," he countered, still toying with the small object in his left hand. "I'm not... it's not..."

He made a vague gesture in the direction of his lap.

"It's not that I can't. I mean, I'm not worried _that_ I can't."

Booth set the object down lightly on the coffee table and Temperance saw that it was Jasper, the small ceramic pig that her partner had once gifted her with.

"It's _why _I can't, Bones."

"It could be for any number of reasons, Booth, but given your age and general health, I'm certain that it's nothing to be overly concerned about. Usually, for men in your condition, it's a combination of stress and diet, producing a physiological..."

"Bones..."

Booth quickly interrupted Temperance's attempt at reassurance.

"It's not... that's not it, Bones. I mean, I know why I can't, and that's why I can't do this..." he said awkwardly while gesturing vaguely with his hand, brushing through the air between them.

The FBI agent sighed and settled his hands palm down on his jean-clad thighs. He looked down as if studying them.

"I love you, Temperance," he confessed almost too quietly for her to hear. "I probably love you more than I've ever loved any woman in my life. And that's why I can't... it's why I can't..."

Again, he gestured widely, taking in the space between them before quickly placing his hand back in his lap. He began to run his hands almost nervously up and down the tops of his thighs, his palms making a soft noise as they moved over the age softened fabric of his jeans.

"I can't have sex with you, because I love you, Temperance."

"I don't know what that means," she admitted plainly, causing Seeley to smile wryly.

"I know, Bones," he reassured her gently. "And that's part of the problem. That's why you're sitting there wrapped up in a silk sheet and I'm sitting here on your couch looking for my belt instead of us both still being back there in your bed."

Seeley finally looked over at his partner, still smiling wryly as he noticed her openly puzzled expression.

"It's all about endorphins, and chemical reactions, and physiological responses for you, Bones."

He took a deep breath as if preparing to plunge into deep water.

"But for me, it's about wine, and music, and candlelight. Love is about knowing that _your_ favorite flowers are daffodils because they're the flowers that your mother gave you on your birthday. It's knowing that you don't like pie, but that you've been known to go across town just to get a piece of chocolate amaretto cheesecake from _Arturo's._"

He took another deep breath.

"And love is wanting to touch you all the time for more than the fact that it sends a rush of endorphins to my brain, Bones."

Seeley leaned forward a little.

"It's about breaking the laws of physics," he murmured, leaning just a breath closer. "I can't have sex with you, Temperance," her partner said, drawing out her name. "Because I want to _make love_ to you."

He sighed abruptly and leaned away from her and back into the brown leather of her couch. He scrubbed his hand over his face a moment before admitting quietly, "And I want you to be able to make love to me."

"I don't..." she began before being interrupted by her partner.

"I know. I know you don't know what that means," he said gently, taking for granted that that was what she had meant to say herself. "It's okay... I understand, really."

He sat back up and began to look around, avoiding her eyes.

"Look, let's just..." he said, stumbling over his words. "I just... I probably shouldn't have told you all that. It's just that... you deserved an explanation. We're still partners and... and..."

Seeley was compelled to look at Temperance.

"And I don't want to loose you," he said sincerely. "So maybe... we can... Maybe we can just try and forget about this okay? We're still friends; still partners. We can still work together. You and I are a great team and..." he trailed off helplessly, finally getting up from the couch.

Temperance watched as Booth cast his gaze around quickly before finally catching sight of his belt half-buried in the couch cushions. He slipped it back on before dropping down again so that he could look her in the eye.

"You're the best partner I ever had, Bones. And hell, if Jack and Angela can do it..."

She rose slowly.

"Bones?"

Booth watched as Temperance silently walked away and in the direction of the kitchen.

"Bones?"

The FBI agent got back up and turned to see his partner better as she nervously fumbled with something on the counter before carefully returning to where he stood.

"Pie?" He asked with a dumbfounded expression, eying the plate held balanced on her hand with its small piece of pie. "Bones, I don't..."

"It's apple," she interrupted him quietly.

"Okay..." he drawled in confusion.

"It's your favorite," Temperance continued.

"It is," Seeley agreed.

"I made it for desert but we..." she said before pausing, licking her lips in a nervous gesture that she rarely displayed.

"Bones? I'm not sure..."

"I made it because it's your favorite,"she interrupted with a determination that was uniquely hers. "I'm not sure why," she confessed. "But I do know that it's your favorite."

Booth couldn't resist a smile.

"Are you trying to seduce me with pie, Bones," he drawled.

"That depends," she countered with her own small smile. "Is it working?"

"Bones..."

"I still think that love is _about_ endorphins, and chemical reactions, and physiological responses," she persisted, quoting her partner. "But with you..." she said taking her own deep breath as Seeley had done. "It's also about pie."

She plucked an apple slice out of the pie piece and offered it to Seeley. After a moment's hesitation he ate it from her fingertips while she watched, waiting. Once he had swallowed, she leaned in quickly, kissing him to savor the sweet cinnamon and apple taste that lingered on his lips.

"Seeley," she whispered against his mouth, his name sounding almost exotic on her own lips. "With you and I, it's about being seduced by apple pie. It's about the fact that you make me believe that it's worth trying to break the laws of physics, even if it's physically impossible to do so. With us, it's about how you make me feel."

She took a breath, tasting his warmth in it.

"It's about how I _want_ to feel, even if it's not always rational," she confessed in a naked moment of vulnerability.

Booth smiled, his lips curving around hers before she pulled back just enough to meet his eyes.

"I don't want to have sex with you, Booth," Temperance said simply.

"No?"

"No..."

Carefully he took the plate from her hand and set it down on the coffee table.

"You don't want to have sex with me..." Booth half asked in a low voice, seeking the answer in his partner's eyes and finding the intimate truth there.

"Seeley," Temperance said softly, slowly drawing him back with her in the direction of her bedroom. "I want to _make love_ with you."

He followed her, toying lightly with the edge of the sheet tucked around his partner's side. His fingertips tickled her skin and she laughed ever so softly.

"She's ticklish..." Seeley said with a small smile of amusement. "Where else are you ticklish, Bones?"

Temperance quirked her lip and beckoned to him with a crook of her finger, teasing him playfully. She opened the bedroom door behind herself and stepping back in open invitation, her smile becoming sweetly seductive.

Seeley smiled in return.

"She seduced me with pie," he whispered with pleased amusement under his breath as he accepted his partner's invitation...

**FIN**


End file.
